Future Tense
by brat64
Summary: After an accident, Harper gains a new... talent. Slipstream callenge.


Disclaimer: I don't own Andromeda or Dead Zone (The Dead zone isn't really in this story, but it is referenced... sort of.)

Summery: From a challenge on SSBBS, a long, long, long time ago before it was shut down. The challenge was to have one of the characters get a Dead zone type thing. I wrote it a long time ago but only now have the courage to post it. So please review and tell me what you think, it you loved it tell me, if you didn't tell me how to make it better. Thanks. :)

**Edit: I've gone over, and removed many typos... feel free to point out any I've missed. :)**

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**Future Tense.**

Harper shook his head at Trance. The girl might have changed, but she still seemed to be so naive about some things. Like that he was a super genius and that he would never screw up this project, it was one of the simplest things he had ever worked on.

It was something from ancient earth years. Something called a VCR. He knew that it was something that the people used to watch films. He laughed again at a worried looking Trance, and made sure that the VCR was on. Trance said: "That's just what I'm saying Harper. It's an old thing, and I don't know if your taking all the pre-" Trance was cut off as Harper turned around to face her, "Trance!-" The rest of the sentence was cut off as the small device exploded, and sent Harper and Trance tumbling.

The explosion wasn't really all that big, not even large enough to completely destroy the device-but it surprised Harper enough to make him fly further and pop his head on the floor. The last thought he had was; Never ignore Trance... And then he fell in to the blackness.

Beka shook her head, looking at Trance. "Ok, come again." Trance only looked at her tolerantly. She and Beka were the only two in med bay at the moment. And of course, there was Harper. He had been there for over a week, ever since the 'harmless' device had exploded in his face. He hadn't woken up since, hadn't even twitched.

"Beka, I have told you over and over, I'm afraid that it isn't going to change until he at least blinks."

"I know, I know Trance. Just tell me." Trance smoothed Harpers hair, and snapped her hand away when she saw what she was doing, not sure if it was because it was something the old her would do, had done, or if she just didn't want to show any weakness. Not even the sentimental kind.

"I'm not _sure_ what's going on in there." She indicated Harpers brain.

"I'm not sure half the time." Beka muttered.

Trance skipped commenting on that statement and went on; "All I do know is that he seemed to hit his head, and that caused some sort of black area in his brain. Maybe he's taking all this time to wake up because his brain functions have to go around the black area." Trance smirked. "Or he just likes the attention."

"I wish it was the later of the two, so I could kick his ass when he wakes up."

Trance smiled, and looked towards-instead of at, the read out in her hand. She set it down quickly, not really caring to see what it said, what was the point? It always said the same thing. Harpers pulse was slow and even, all his vitals were right where they should be. But his brain activity had speed up. Though, Harper always had always had increased brain activity, it seemed to have elevated since the accident. "You know, that stupid thing he was working on is still in the same place he left it." Trance said suddenly. "We don't even know what went wrong with it."

Beka nodded, "I know but there's another thing, I don't see how that thing could still be in one piece, yet Harpers laid up here in med bay..." Trance felt a quite, familiar tickle on the back of her neck. Her eyes went lighting fast to the read out, her hands moving just as fast to grab it. Not stopping to question, not giving in to Beka's look, a look of curiosity that was bluntly obvious.

Trance still ignored her. Her eyes speeding faster over the read out as she looked up at Harper and then back down to the read out. When she couldn't take it any longer, Beka spoke up. "Trance? What is it?"

"His pulse has spend up, and his brain activity has increased even more."

"What does that mean?" Trance placed the readout down. "It could possibly mean that he's waking up, but that's just one of the possibilities." And believe me, there about a million and one out there. She thought, though found it odd that she couldn't grasp on to all of them.

Beka sighed. "Well, any idea when that could happen?" Trance scanned him and shook her head. "No, just soon."

With out warning the darkness that surrounded Harper twisted in to red and blues and yellows, among other colors. Harper found it oddly uncomfortable. But reached out and swirled the colors anyways, well, that was before he realized that he didn't have a hand. He gasped out loud and let his not there eyes open, to reveal Beka standing over him, though the room was dark and she was the only one there.

Her face was worried. He wondered why. For that fact, why was she standing over him? He took another slow breath, and the slight pounding in his head turned to a slight pressure. "Harper?" She asked. He managed to roll his eyes. "And who else would I be?"

She took a breath herself and put her hand on top of his head, as if making sure he didn't go anywhere. Suddenly Harper was standing up. He was still in med bay, but Trance had joined Beka there, they were standing over someone on the bed, talking about someone. Harper moved closer, and was shocked that the person lying on the bed was him.

Trance pushed some of his hair back, but then yanked her hand away as if she had been burned. Harper jumped slightly as they disappeared, and Beka was looking down at him.

"Are you ok?" He looked at her oddly,

"What just happened?" He asked, shifting around on the bed slightly. Beka bit her lip in response.

"Don't you remember? You were working on something or other, and it blew up in your face." That wasn't what he had meant, but he would take that also. "You've been here for the last week." Before Harper could question her further Trance rushed it, tied back dreadlocks flying.

"Lights!" She snapped, and Andromeda obeyed right away. Trance looked at the readout beside him. Every thing seemed in order besides the increased brain activity. Harper was beyond confused.

"You need to rest." Trance commanded, but gently. "And we need to tell the crew that you're awake." Andromeda's hologram appeared.

"I have informed them. Dylan and my Avatar are on their way up here. I'm glad that you're awake and feeling better." She said before disappearing. Harper grinned. And Beka's arm brushed up against Harpers, and for the second time that night he felt dizziness descend on him. He was sitting there, in the medical bed, and suddenly Beka popped him on the head. It disappeared and he had time to ask "What?" before he felt a light, yet sharp hit on the back of his head. His eyes went wide. weirdness. He thought.

"Next time will you please take more caution when you're working on something?"

"But-"

"I mean it Seamus. Next time you almost kill yourself and make me worry like that I'm just going to finish the job for you!" He looked up at her, blue eyes shining.

"Good to know you care boss."

The next day when Harper woke up, he had forgotten all about the weirdness from the night before. All the crew had been in to see him and he was bouncing to get out of there. Finally Trance walked back in,

"Well doc? Am I gonna live?" She ignored him and instead said;

"Yeah, I'm just a little concerned about this dark part in you brain. Even though you've woken, it doesn't seem to be dissipating." Harper thought for a moment.

"Is it going to kill me?" He asked.

"No, I mean I don't think so, it doesn't seem to be affecting you any way that I can see-"

"Well then, I'm not going to worry about it." He jumped down off of the table.

"Am I ok to go?" He asked in a voice that told Trance it didn't matter what she thought, and that he was going to leave anyways, so she nodded. After he left Trace went over the readouts again, a little miffed about how he had been in coma—more or less—for a week and now he was up, and not only that but running up and down the halls of Andromeda. Well, not in the literal sense, at least she didn't think so. But knowing Harper...

Harper walked happily down the hall, intent on going to the machine shop to see what went wrong with the VCR. He refused to believe that it was his mistake.

He arrived at the shop and pressed the button to go in. He looked around at the familiar ness and smiled, the little machine was right where he had left it. He picked it up; ignoring that part of it fell off, to see what was wrong with it. Suddenly he felt a dizzy sensation. He was watching himself, working on the VCR. He had fixed it, replaced all the things that had been destroyed up in the explosion.

When he switched it on, it exploded yet again. Only this time, it killed him. He was thrown back, and landed on a sharp tool that he couldn't make out from his vantage point. As Harper walked over to the 'him' on the floor he saw it. The power source on the tool that he had been using (this time and the time before) was turned up to the highest setting, too much power for something that little. Before Harper could think of anything else he was pulled back to reality.

He dropped the machine and stepped back quickly.

"What the hell..." He asked. He reached forward and prodded the thing with his toe.

"Harper?" Harper yelped and jumped back, landing on his butt.

"Are you alright?" Rommie asked, as the Avatar walked in. She helped him up.

"Yeah. Yeah. Just um a... little jumpy." Harper dusted himself off.

"Rom-doll, could you do me a favor?"

"What is it?"

"Dispose of this?"

"Sure," She said. But looked at him oddly after the task was done.

"Is something wrong Harper? I have hardly ever known you to stop work on a project." He shrugged it off with a laugh.

"No problemo Rom dear. Just I figure that there are better things I could be doing with my time." He raised his eyebrows at her. She glared and promptly left the room.

"Well," Harper mused. "She didn't say no." He took one more glance at room and then hurried out, intent on going to the medical bay to see what the heck was going on.

Harper walked in to the medical bay, and gladly saw that no one was there. He sighed and as quickly as possible did a scan of himself. He shook his head at the results, which still said the same thing that it had the last time Trance had done a scan on him. He put the scanner back in place; he just needed to think about it. He mused as he walked out of the room.

There had to be a reason for this. He thought back to when it had first happened. When Beka had placed her hand on his head. He had a flash of her and Trance talking about him. He had been asleep in the bed, so that had to of happened before he woke up. Then when he had saw Beka pop him in the head a split second before she did it. And, of course, the whole thing in the machine shop as well.

He bit his lip. It wasn't possible... That he was seeing the future… was it?

"No way, uh, uh." Besides he had seen the past too. At least that was what he thought it was.

"I am so losing it!" But still... he was going to get to the bottom of this if it killed him, well; he was going to get to the bottom of this if caused him some pain, small pain. Then again with any luck there would be no pain involved. He had to test it, now, it was obviously happening when he touched someone or something. So he just needed to test that theory. But what on? He needed to be careful. If this was really happening then he wanted to make sure that what he saw was something that wanted to be seen.

Lucky him, Dylan and Tyr chose that moment to come jogging around the corner. Harper Shrank against the wall as not to get stampeded over.

"Harper, good morning," Dylan who had stopped and turned around said, Tyr had keep on running.

"Morning."

"You still feeling ok? I'm surprised Beka let you out of her sight."

"Feeling chipper!" Did he just say chipper?

"And I, you know, had ta bribe her, she's vowed to over see all my future projects." Dylan laughed at Harpers little joke, but then Harper had a thought.

"But, it's good to see you to this morning, Boss." Then he grabbed Dylan's hand and shook it willing what ever it was to come.

He wasn't disappointed. He was standing in command. It was Tyr's watch, yet Dylan was there with him.

"Never bet on a race you can't win." Tyr told him calmly. Then it suddenly came to Harper from no where, that Dylan must have bet with Tyr that he would win their little morning jog. And Dylan lost because he stopped to talk to him. Then it was gone and he was standing in front of Dylan again, who had the oddest look on his face. Harper couldn't hold back a chuckle. Before Harper bounced away he said;

"Hey, if you take that ladder up to the next deck and then go through conduit 57 you could still beat him." Then he left Dylan staring at him, shrugging and hurrying to head Harpers advice. Harper entered the information into his calculations. So, this meant that somehow, as impossible as it seemed, he was getting glimpse of the future, or perhaps the past, or maybe both.

He had a theory that it was all tied into the so called black area. It all came back to that. But then, who knew. Maybe he was just chasing his tail. He rubbed his temples. Maybe he should get Trance to take a look; maybe run some more in-depth test, see if that could help him in anyway. He nodded to himself, and headed that way again.

He met up with Trance just as she was going in to med bay.

"Hello Harper. Is something wrong?" She smiled at him.

"Well, looks like you just can't visit anyone on this ship with out wanting something. How rude." He sniffled.

"Oh," She raised her eyebrows, "I'm sorry."

Harper nodded. "Good, now, I'm wondering if you could do me a favor." Trance rolled her eyes.

"What is it?" She asked as she took the lead into the room. "W-" Harper was about to ask, as he took Trances arm to get her full attention, and with no warning there was a searing pain, like someone had shoved a rusty pipe through his head. He yelped and let go, as their skin lost contact the pain instantly stopped. And he was left with only the memory of the searing pain that cut to his very core, though, he thought, maybe the memory was enough.

Trance looked at him with concern and confusion. "Harper? Are you ok?" Harper nodded,

"You sure?"

Harper nodded again.

"Ok, well, what did you need?"

"Nothing, it's not that big a deal, just forget it. I'll, um catch you later." With that Harper rushed out. Trance turned her back to the closing door, shaking her head at the odd buzz that had entered her head when Harper had touched her, she hadn't felt that feeling since... Trance's thought trailed off as her eyes went wide and she realized what had just happened. She quickly turned and ran after Harper. As she bypassed a turn she saw him ahead of her, leaning against the wall and holding his head.

"Harper!" She called. He looked up at her, doubt apparent but stood his ground as she reached him. She was quiet for a second.

"Are you ok?" She asked finally. He nodded, a bit calmer now, she could tell.

"Trance, I know you know what that was so why don't you tell me what's going on so that I know what you know." She leaned up against the wall beside him.

"I think that I know what's wrong with you. The area of you brain, the black area. I'm sure that it was caused when you hit your head in the explosion. I think it's the same reason it took you so long to wake up. Everything is still having to go around that area. Your brain is having to find a new way for you to work. Its sort of like a dead zone in your head."

Harper nodded, accepting this fact as he pushed himself off of the wall.

"I believe you Trance. But, what I want to know now is how you know." Trance bit her lip.

"Well, I mean, of course you would want to know that." He nodded and crossed his arms, determined to get an answer out of her. She pushed herself off of the wall as well and stood in front of him.

"Put it this way, I'm can, sort of, see glimpse of the future."

"Like your psychic?" She pushed her shoulders.

"Right, I guess you could say that. Only not exactly. I get glimpses of a bunch of futures and I have to try and pick the best one and make that future happen."

He looked at her a little disbelieving but nodded anyhow. "Ok, go on."

"Well, I more or less realized what was going on when you grabbed my arm. See, let's just say that I have a block against other people reading my mind."

He looked in to her eyes and left it at that. "Ok, well, I'm- uh, pretty sure I know how it works." He told her. He wasn't sure why he believed her so easily; perhaps it was because he had seen the proof, in living color no less. Or maybe it was just because he had become accustomed to believing in Trance, or even the whole crew of the Andromeda. Not to mention Andromeda herself.

"It first happened when I woke up, Beka touched me and I got a flash. Which was the past, then I was going to work on the VCR thingy again, and I saw it blowing up in my face." Trance nodded.

"Sounds about right. Tell you what, come to med deck, and we can run some more tests, figure out how to fix this." Harper shrugged again. "Whatever."

She reached out to guide him there and he pulled away.

"Um, I'm not sure if I want another dose of Trance mind dust." She laughed and lead the way instead.

Harper walked in to the Maru quietly, trying to act casual and in doing so making himself look all the more like he was up something. Ok, just because he wanted to see what this 'thing' could do didn't make him a bad person, just a little nosey.

Trance had taken some blood and tissue samples and such and told him she would have results as soon as possible. He had also asked her to keep this a secret, just between the two of them, well, until he decided that he wanted to let the rest of the crew on to his new ability. Trance had only nodded. He smiled as he quietly sunk up to the pilot chair; Beka was no where in sight.

"So what if she was?" He said aloud. "She would see you walking around the Maru-"

"With that 'I'm up to something smile' on you face." Harper jumped and quickly turned around, a hand over his chest.

"I hate it when people do that to me." He muttered. Beka ignored him,

"What are you up to Harper?"

He looked at her like she was insane. "What do you mean? I'm just... you know, checking to make sure that everything in here is in tip top shape." She raised an eyebrow at him.

"You sure? You aren't going to run off with my ship are you?"

He shook his head and reassured her. "No, promise boss, the thought hadn't even entered my mind."

She thought it over for a second. "Ok, ok." She was still nodding when she walked away. He watched her retreating form for a moment then pushed him self into the seat. He sighed and grabbed the control. This time he didn't have to will the flashes to come. He was sitting in the pilot's seat still. There was a blond woman in front of him.

"Any last words?"

He nodded. "Yes, I'm sorry." And his hand fired the weapons and the blond screamed. Harper closed his eyes and when he opened them he was back where was supposed to be. He ripped his hands away and shook his head. He was sure that one was from Beka. He shook it off and looked around, he hadn't really thought about it, but up here was where the battles took place.

That wasn't the kind of things he wanted to see. He'd had enough of those himself. He jumped out of the seat and walked down the corridor, bypassing the crew bunks, and found himself in the small medical bay. He bit his lip. Then hastily pushed his hand down on one of the medical tables. He closed his eyes, when he reopened him he saw Rev standing over Tyr. Rev injected something in to the larger mans chest. Tyr spat water and he eyes shot open, he grabbed Rev, who assured him he was ok, and that his body had just went through a major shock.

"The boy -?" Tyr gasped.

"Alive-alive! And well, thanks to you." Harper jumped as the images disappeared. No way had Tyr been worried about him. He knew when it had happened though; he bit his lip and walked to the other side of the room. He leaned up against the table and with out warning he was again thrown into it.

He could see himself lying still in front of Rev and Tyr,

"I ask of you the same thing I would ask of the Divine, nothing. But I will not help you, knowing that it condemns Harper to a certain death."

"You'd rather condemn us both."

"I'd rather trust in the Divine."

"You're a Magog. You'll survive either way."

"So it would seem."

"He's got Magog larva in his guts. He's dieing, surfing. If I put him out of his misery now there'll be nothing to decide."

"Perhaps. But that forces me to wonder, why you have not already done so."

Harper jumped away from the bed. Looked down at it and said: "This is not what I had in mind. Is it always so drab around here?" He sighed and walked out trying to ignore the gratitude that he felt towards Tyr, and the debt he still owed him for saving his life.

He sighed and pushed it out of his mind, seeing Beka's room out of the corner of his eye, and thought about the vision that he had of her and the other blond women. He tip toed over to her door, and looked in. She was lying on her back, looking at a flexie. Her face was pensive, and Harper didn't want to break her concentration. He wasn't really sure what he wanted to say to her anyways.

As he turned to go she called after him. "Something you need?" She asked, laying the flexie down on top of her stomach.

"Eh, no. Um, maybe?" She smiled and pushed herself up.

"Well, when you figure it out why don't you tell me?" He nodded, but instead of walking away he moved closer.

"What you up to?" Small talk. He thought. He could do the small talk thing right now.

"Not too much, just going over the slip jumps that Dylan wants to use to get to..." She trailed off. "What ever new planet he wants to bully in to joining the common wealth." She smiled. "You?"

"Allot." He said. Then pressed his lips together.

"What do you mean?" She asked, "Are you still feeling ok?" He nodded quickly to suppress her fears.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm good. But ah," Why did he have the oddest feeling that Beka needed to be clued in on almost everything that went on with him? Ah, maybe it was because she had taken care of him more times than he could remember, and for some reason he still felt the need for her to. He walked a little closer, then sighed and set down on the bed with her.

"It isn't really all that big of the deal."

Her face remained blank.

"Is every thing always so drib and drab around here?" He asked quickly. Avoiding the topic. That was something else that he could do.

"What do you mean?" Beka asked,

"Well I don't know. Just everything around here always seems to go wrong."

"It just seems that way." Beka assured him. "There have been some great times on the Andromeda."

He didn't say anything so she reached over and patted his shoulder. Again with out warning, the vision came. He could see himself and Dylan, Tyr, and Beka standing on command deck. The attack had come on sudden, and Rommie and Trance were still on their way to command.

"Uh, Dylan? The first fighter just broke off course, and is coming at us from the front." The 'vision him' said.

"Where's the second fighter?" Dylan barked back.

"Uh oh. He's coming at us from the back."

"That's suicide." Tyr said calmly.

"No." Beka said. "If they do it just right they could hit us with some more bombs. And if they hit just the right way then it could blow us to ity bity bits.."

His vision self was panicked. "I'm glad that you two want to sit around and play analyst. But if you don't mind I would like to kill them before they kill us please!"

Dylan seemed to agree. "Beka! Make a hard right!" Beka did as she was instructed and just as she did, another fighter came out of slipstream, and hit Andromeda with a full assault of missiles, and in turn the other two fighters fired. The Andromeda didn't stand a chance as it was blown to atoms... It ended with a flash and Harper found himself staring strait ahead.

"Harper?" Beka asked, "Harper!"

Harper suddenly found that she was right in his line of sight, shaking him. When she saw his eyes focus. "Are you ok?" He nodded.

"Yeah, yeah. M'good. I gotta go." He proceeded to jump off of the bed.

"Harper!" Beka shouted after him, but he was already off of the Maru.

Harper had gone to Command. He sighed; every thing seemed to be fine. He thought as he ran his hand over the control panel. And got another flash, it was an old one. Of him and Beka. Dylan on the screen behind them.

"HI DYLAN!"

He had said and waved in an odd manor. Dylan had followed suite.

"HI DYLAN!"

Harper moved his hand and laughed a little. The flash of the fight here seemed to be a distant memory. He turned to the pilot station. And touched the control lightly. Beka and Tyr dancing, quickly flew across his mind.

He moved his eyes, and saw a book lying on the floor. Tyr must have left it here by accident. He thought. He moved to pick it up, and to maybe go give it back to Tyr, only when he touched it, it happened once again.

This time it was in medical. Tyr saying; "There are all sorts of phenomenon going around, I, in fact believe the boy." Harper shook it away, and turned as the Command doors opened and Dylan and Beka both walked it, worried looks on there faces.

"Hey guys." He greeted.

"Taking up some reading?" Beka asked of the book in his hands. He looked at it. The Art of war was the title, and it was by someone who he couldn't pronounce their long name.

"Eh, no. I don't think so." He quickly laid the book down. Dylan looked at Beka and then back to Harper.

"Are you feeling ok?" He asked. Harper nodded.

"I could go for a sparky." He told him, "But I'm otherwise just fine."

"You weren't fine just now." Beka said.

"Sure I was! What, never had a 'duh' moment Beka?"

Beka glared at him. "Come on Harper. What's wrong with you?"

What is wrong with me? Harper thought. He had been ready to tell Beka about the weirdness going on. Now he wasn't? Harper pushed his shoulders.

"I'm fine. There is nothing wrong with me."

"Right." Dylan sighed. He reached out to take Harpers arm but Harper pulled away. Dylan frowned at him.

"Come on Harper." Harper didn't need a hit from the future... or past for that matter to see that Dylan wanted to go to med deck. But Harper didn't want to see what secrets Dylan held.

"Fine." He said in a calm voice that didn't quite suite him.

"You want a trip to medical, well then we'll take a trip to medical. But I'm telling you here and now that I'm just fine." He brushed pass Dylan and Beka, careful not to touch them—and got ahead of them.

Once he was out of their line of vision he rubbed his face with his hands. "K, I think that this is starting to get to me a little bit." he said aloud, before heading to med deck again.

Harper walked in to med bay to see Trance hand Tyr some gauze.

"Hey big guy." He said, waving at Trance to come over to him.

"Hey." She said. "Is something wrong?"

"It's this whole thing; it's really starting to get to me. I've seen allot of things that I don't care to see, or ponder over."

Trance sighed. "I'm sorry. I know how you feel."

"Do you?" Trance looked at him, at his eyes, he was out of sorts. But she was saved from answering by Dylan and Beka walking in.

"Hey, Tyr. You ok?" Tyr nodded, and wrapped the gauze around his wrist.

"Fine,"

Andromeda appeared in front of them. "He was a little over zealous with workouts."

"Thank you, ship." Tyr growled before Andromeda disappeared. Dylan smiled, and then turned to Harper.

"You, ah, lost us."

Harper blinked at him.

"So. Trance." Dylan began, but Trance cut him off.

"Dylan, Harper is perfectly fine. Well, what I mean to say is, that Harper is not sick, he is physically fine." Dylan waited for the rest, but Trance had turned towards Harper. "But, Harper I really think that it's time that you told them what's going on." Harper glared at her, he tried not to find it surprising when she glared back. He shook his head.

"Why?" He asked, as if Tyr and Beka and Dylan were not in the room at all.

"They are just going to think I'm insane."

Trance sighed and asked with her eyes.

"Fine!" He threw up his arms. "Ok, um-Beka, Trance told you about my increased brain activity, and the black area-or whatever it is. Ok, she also told you that my brain is having to go around that area, and that is some how, well responsible for what is happening to me."

Dylan nodded. "I'm with you so far."

"Ok, so this is where it gets... a little odd. See, every, um every time I touch someone or something, I sorta get a flash like thing, and I can see the future or the past..." Harper trailed off at the looks he was getting from Tyr, Dylan and Beka. He cast an annoyed look at Trance. She took up his pace.

"He's telling the truth." Harper rolled his eyes. Like they would believe that, because it was just that simple.

"Trance, it's just highly improbable that he would be able to see things."

Harper shook his head and threw his hands up in annoyance at the people on this ship, who faced some 'highly improbable' things every other week, but they couldn't believe this. But in doing so his finger tip brushed Dylan's arm. And he was hearing Dylan's voice, in his quarters talking to Rommie.

"I'm telling you, I think that Harper needs some time off. Maybe he's working to hard, I mean, you're a big job for one man Rommie." It disappeared and Harper said with utter calm.

"Dylan. I am not insane. And I don't need some time off. What I need is you guys to believe me!" Dylan opened his mouth, and let it hang there for a second before asking: "How, how did you know that I was thinking that?"

"Hello? Me touch, me see future." He said.

"Har-" Beka began, only to be cut off by Tyr saying, "There are all sorts of phenomenon going around, I, in fact believe the boy." Harpers head snapped over to him. He had seen Tyr saying that. The fact just renewed Harpers hope to get the rest to believe them.

"See! Even Tyr believes me!" Beka ignored the both of them. "Well, Harper. Here's a solution. How about proving it." Harper blinked,

"S'cuse me?"

"Prove it. Here, touch Tyr or Dylan's arm. You would know allot about me and Trance, so Dylan or Tyr." Harper bit his lip--not sure that it worked like that. But he was determined anyways.

"Fine!" He wasn't sure he wanted to know any of the secrets that the two men held. He figured that Dylan had the less grisly of the two, and so grabbed his arm. He was zoomed into the weird place again. Right away he saw Rommie and Dylan there. Rommie was working at a console, Dylan was sitting on the floor.

"And what if it doesn't work? What if we have to-" Dylan cut her off.

"Have to stop the Magog from hatching?"

Rommie paused. "To kill him."

"If it comes to that then I'll take care of it." Dylan replied. "When you recruited the Maru crew I thought they were unreliable, unprofessional. Harpers closer to then any engineer I've ever had. Practically closer then any crew member that has served on me."

"Like Family." Dylan said.

"They all are. Hell, even Tyr."

"We should have maintained military detachment."

"Well Rommie we didn't. We couldn't, they needed us, and the truth is we needed them. Their all we have." With Dylan's last statement Harper zoomed back to the present. He frowned at Dylan. But felt a happy little grin trying to push its self up to take the frowns place.

"Well?" Dylan asked,

"You know, I'm honored that when the whole Tesseract machine thing was going on that so many of my friends wanted to make sure they were the '_ones to take care of it_.'"

"What are you getting at Harper?"

"I saw you and Rommie talking. Something about maintaining military detachment. And you guys were afraid my plan wouldn't work, and you said that we need you guys as much as you needed us. And I think that is just the sweetest thing ever." Dylan's face was blank.

"Well?" Tyr prodded. "Is what the boy says so?"

Dylan nodded. "Uh, yeah, that's a conversation that Rommie and I had. Ok, well, uh, you can see the future."

Harper smiled. "When you say it, it sounds weird."

Dylan didn't respond. "Do we know how long this is going to last, or if it can cause any permanent damage?"

Trance glanced at Harper before responding. "I don't think it could hurt him. And there really is no telling how long it could last. He could wake up and it could be gone the next day."

"Trance, does this mean that if he touches anyone, that he can see things, things that they've done in the past. Like, say stuff that nobody knows?" Beka asked

Trance blinked. "You mean secrets."

"Yes, Trance. Secrets."

Trance nodded her head.

"And you guys all win the 'talking about me like I'm not here award!' Congrats!"

"Sorry Harper." Beka said stiffly. For some reason, the room had become even more quite since they had started to believe him. Harper wasn't to sure that he liked the new kind of quite

It had been nearly a week since Harper had told the rest of the crew about his 'condition.' A week of trying not to touch things, and when he did hoping that what he saw was pleasant. Though he had quite enjoyed being able to tell if something was going to blow up in his face before hand.

He was all together ignoring the fact that he had allot of alone time all of a sudden. He smiled once, and then went back to staring at the stars. He always found OBs deck a comforting place. He was in complete zoneout mode when Rommie walked in.

"Hello Harper."

"Hey Romdoll, what's up?"

"Nothing... is up." Harper rolled his eyes.

"Something you need?"

"No, just felt like talking."

"And you couldn't have found a better source of conversation?"

Rommie frowned and set down on the floor with him. Ok, so he was in a sour mood. Who could blame him? No one that's who. He nodded fiercely to agree with his thoughts.

"I just wanted to check up on you, make sure that you're doing alright." He was silent, thinking. And all of a sudden all the things that he had been trying to ignore came rushing at him.

"Oh. You mean, like that fact that every one is trying to avoid me, and the fact that I haven't spoken to Beka in two days. Or the fact that the only person who seems to ever come around me is Trance. But I can't hang out with her every second of the day, can I? Is that what you mean?" During all this he didn't look at her face one time. But he heard her shift around on the floor.

"Harper. I can see why you're taking this hard. I can but-"

"No, see Rom, that's where you're getting it all wrong. See, I'm not the one with the problem. It's every one else that's got the problem with it."

"Harper, come on that's not true." He turned to her finally, with a look of seriousness that she hardly ever seen on his face.

"It's not? Ok, then. Lets see." With out thanking he reached out and placed his hand on top of hers. A familiar sensation and he saw Rommie and Beka talking. They were on the Maru.

"Maybe you should talk to him." Rommie was saying. Beka tossed a look over her shoulder. She was doing something on the console in front of her. She pressed a few more keys and then turned around.

"You mean Harper."

"Of course I do, I mean some one needs to."

"Well, go ahead and find him. I have some things to do here."

Rommie let her head fall to the side. "Beka?"

Beka sighed and leaned against the wall behind her. "Rommie, its not like I don't want to see him. It's just that, well. I just. Ok, we all have secrets. And I guess it's a given that I have some secrets too. And Harper can rip those secrets out of you with no more then a simple touch. By no fault of his own of course. And that's not something that I want to see happen in the near future. Some things are meant to stay hidden."

Rommie nodded. "I see."

As the vision faded Harper looked in to Rommie's eyes, then quietly turned back to look at the stars.

"Funny, I knew that 'lie gene' would come in handy."

"Harper."

"No, I get it. I do. I wouldn't want someone going through my head at all times. Picking out every little detail of my life. I get it."

Rommie looked out at the stars with him. "Maybe you should go talk to Beka."

"She doesn't want to talk to me."

"That's not-" Rommie blinked. Knowing what conversation that he must have saw her having. The one with Beka, the one that must have hurt the most.

"That's not what she said Harper. It's not like she hates you. Go, talk."

Harper looked at the stars for a few more moments and then pushed himself up, and headed to the doors. He stopped, and turned back around. Rommie was still looking at the stars.

"Rommie. Thanks." She turned around to face him.

"For what Harper?"

"For not being afraid to talk to me."

A second passed, "You welcome."

Harper shot her a smile that lasted for longer then a second, and walked out the door. Heading to the Maru.

Harper sighed. He was standing out side Beka's quarters. After a few more moments of loitering he heard her call from within the room; "You gonna stand out there all day or are you coming in Harper?"

"How did you know it was me?" He asked.

"Cause I did." He smiled and leaned against the wall. What was the reason that he had come here? Oh yeah.

"So, just thought i would stop by. I haven't really seen you in a few days."

She was sitting up on the bed. "Yeah, about that."

"It's ok. I wouldn't have come by. It's just that Rommie wanted me to."

Beka smiled. "Yeah, who would have thought that a war ship would be a peace maker?"

Harper laughed. "Yeah, go figure." They lapsed back in to an uncomfortable silence.

"Harper, I'm sorry that I've been avoiding you lately. There I said it."

Harper blinked. "No big. I mean I understand the reason behind it. Everyone has things they don't want people to know. And of late I sadly have had the resources to discover those things." Beka nodded.

"So we're ok?"

"Of course."

"Good."

Harper smiled at her. Maybe things were starting to look up.

"So, see anything interesting?" She asked,

"Not really." He quickly supplied, remembering the vision he had, had of Beka in the pilot chair.

He walked a little closer. "Well, come to think of it the other day I did see something."

"What was it?"

"Oh, so you don't want me know you're so called secrets, but you don't care to hear about others?"

"Of course not." She answered right away. Harper laughed,

"Well, it was sorta funny, but then again the kind of thing that you never ever want to see again. Tyr and Dylan." Beka leaned in, as if that would make Harpers words come out faster.

"Comparing." Beka let her mouth slip open.

"Weapons." Beka's eyes went wide.

"Oh my-" Until she realized what he had really said. She blinked,

"Yeah I never knew that they had such an impressing array of-" Beka cut him off in mid sentence by throwing a pillow at him, which hit him in the head.

"Hey!" He said picking it up. He gripped the pillow tighter when a vision hit him. Inside the vision Harper jumped a little. He was standing inside of Beka's room. It looked a little different though. He took a step, and then tensed when a 'bang' could be heard coming from out side.

"Come on Seamus!" He heard Beka saying. Then she stumbled through the door. With Harpers arm strung across her shoulder. She more or less fell onto the bed, and pushed Harper up on it. They were both bleeding. Beka from a gash on the head. Harper had a gash on his own head, along with a wound to his stomach. A slash from a knife that barley missed cutting him open. He recalled a bar fight gone awry, Beka had brought him to this room, it being the closest.

Beka quickly started cleaning the wounds, and injecting Nano bots in to him. Which didn't help the infection that he had gotten from it anyway. Beka had set by his side and nursed him back to health then to, he thought as he watched Beka trying to wake him up.

"Wake up you idiot! You could be concussed!" Harper shook his head, as the visions of the two faded away.

He saw Beka-who was now standing in front of him-looking at him, waiting. She opened her mouth, about to ask what he saw. Before she could he threw the pillow back at her. He smiled when it hit her full on in the face. He earned a glare in response but ignored it.

"What did you see Harper?" She asked, putting the pillow in its proper place.

"It was way back when. After that major bar fight."

"Which one?" Beka rolled her eyes.

"The one where the big blue dude tried to stab me to death, but you broke a bear bottle over his head instead."

"Ah."

"And I saw when you brought be back here." She nodded.

"Those were the days." She joked. He laughed too. Finally feeling like everything was getting back to normal again. Of course that was before she playfully pushed his shoulder. And once again his mind was whisked away. Only this time he found himself in a familiar vision.

The one where the Andromeda was in a fight, and it was destroyed, the one he had, had earlier that week. The vision seemed to go by faster this time, Beka not even realizing that he had, had one. He once again felt the need to go and check on command. "Hey, Beka wanna make a trip to command with me?" She raised her eye brows at him.

"Uh, why?"

"I dunno."

She pushed her shoulders. "Sure why not."

They walked in to command to see Tyr and Dylan already in there.

"Hello, what brings you two here?" Dylan asked, giving them a smile. Tyr barley grunted when they walked in.

"Uh," Harper supplied. Not wanting to worry them, but thinking that he should probley tell them for safeties sake.

"Well, ya see Dylan. I-" Harper was cut off as Andromeda told Dylan that six fighters had just exited slipstream.

"Fighters?" Dylan asked, walking up to his station.

"Yes."

"Hail them."

"I already have, they're not responding."

"Hm." Dylan said.

"Andromeda, who are they?" Andromeda's hologram appeared.

"I don't know, Captain. I can't get a scan on the ship, something is blocking my sensors." She disappeared as Dylan tried to hail them again. Before he even got half way through, the ship rocked and they were tossed back and fourth.

"They are preparing another shot!"

"Battle stations!" Dylan snapped and Beka and Harper didn't hesitate. The fighter fired another shot. And the ship rocked annoyingly.

"Tyr! Return fire!" Tyr didn't need that much encouragement.

"Missiles away." The missiles hit there target as two of the fighters were blown sky high.

"Woo hoo!" Harper shouted and pumped his fist in the air, even when one of the four remaining fighters shot at them some more.

"Great! Break the ship. Never get a day off..." Harper mumbled to himself, even though that really wasn't his main concern.

"Tyr!"

"Missiles away." Tyr released another barrage of missiles and blew two more of the fighters away. There were only two left. Harper's eyes went wide as one of the fighters disappeared.

"Damn." He said. Rommie and Trance were still on their way to command. "Uh, Dylan? The first fighter just broke off course, and its coming at us from the front." He found himself saying.

"Where's the second fighter?" Dylan barked back.

"Uh oh. He's coming at us from the back." Beka said.

"That's suicide." Tyr said calmly.

"No." Beka said. "If they do it just right they could hit us with some more bombs. And if they hit just the right way then it could blow us to ity bity bits..."

Harper began to panic, because unlike he in the vision he knew what was going to happen. But he felt the need to play along with it.

"I'm glad that you two want to sit around and play analyst. But if you don't mind I would like to kill them before they kill us please!" Dylan seemed to agree.

"Beka! Make a hard left!" Beka almost did as she was told, but before she could Harper saw his chance.

"No! Beka! Right! GO RIGHT!" And for some reason she didn't ask questions, just listened to him. She turned fast, and quickly maneuvered the Andromeda out of the way. As she did a fighter came out of slipstream and right into the fire of its oncoming buddies. They all ended up firing on each other, and exploding. But not before the ship that had just appeared fired some missiles, which hit the already battle damaged Andromeda.

The crew was thrown about; Harper sailed over the railing, and slammed into the floor rather painfully. The last thing he saw was the sparks that were flying about the command deck. The last thing he thought was: Great, I'm going to have to fix that. and then he passed out.

Harper was very not awake one minute, and then very awake the next. His eyes shot open and he was sitting up before he had a chance to take half a breath, and then the dizziness forced him back down. He closed his eyes, and got control. Then slowly opened them. To see a very Gold face looking down on him.

"Harper, how are you feeling?"

"Like I was just fired from a canon and landed with out a safety net." He said, placing a hand on his forehead.

"Rommie, please dim the lights 20. Thank you." Then she turned back to Harper.

"Canon?" Harper ignored her. He was so not in the mood for this.

"What happened? Did we win?" He slowly opened his eyes, and felt better now that the lights were dimmed.

"Yes, we won the fight. More or less. Command is a wreck, and we still don't know who was after us." Harper eased himself up, wincing. Trance quietly injected him with something.

"Thanks." He said as the pain started to recede. And he started to think clearly.

"You know. Harper, it's because you that we aren't all dead. If Beka would have moved the ship left, we could have been killed."

"Is every one ok?"

Trance nodded. "Yeah, you seemed to get the worst of it. It's been two days since the fight." This made Harper stop.

"Really? Wow. Seems like an instant. Wait-you touched me when you injected me with that. And you know, the searing pain didn't come!" Trance smiled.

"I was hoping that you would say that. See, I was running more test, and it came back that the dark part in your brain is gone, and your brain activity has slowed down." Harper smiled bigger.

"So it's gone then?"

"As far as I know. Test it?" Trance offered her arm. Harper looked at it for a second and then placed a finger tip on it. Nothing happened. He let out breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Thank God. Now maybe things will go all the way back to normal. Or to what ever passes." Trance nodded her agreement as Beka rushed in, and didn't stop till she ran in to the medical bed, using it to stop herself.

"Harper! You're awake!"

"Looks-" Before Harper could smart off Beka placed a hand over his mouth. He closed his mouth and let his lips turn in to a smile. There was something he had really missed. Beka touching him without being afraid. She removed her hand.

"Feeling good?"

"Felling fine he answered. It's gone." S

he nodded. "So I have been told." She replied. The smiled at each other. Glad that things weren't as tense as they had been.

"Oh, and thanks, for you know. Kind of saving our asses. Could have been worse then it was."

"I'm just glad that you have such great reflexes. And that you have the good sense to listen to me. No questions asked. She laughed.

"Yeah, sure Harper." The room was silent for a second and then Beka sighed, and ruffled Harpers hair.

"I'm glad that you feeling good, because the ship needs allot of work. And we need you to fix it." Harper leaned up against the pillow Trance had placed behind him.

"Ah, good to know."

"What is."

"That you can't get by with out me." Beka rolled her eyes and pulled the pillow away. Yeah, Harper thought. Every thing was going to be just fine.

...The End...

**Story is for: HarpersPixie! She helped me so much on this it isn't even funny. She's the sweetest person I've ever met. So… go read her stories:)**


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